History+of+Creativity+in+Cognitive+Psychology

Creativity is the cognitive activity leading to original and relevant solutions (Medin, Ross, & Markman, 2005). Though the term "creativity" was not coined until 1926 by Alfred North Whitehead (pictured right), the concept of creativity can be traced all the way back to the time of Plato and beyond, its origin evident in Greek and Judeo-Christian traditions (Greek Muses were gods who inspired creativity; the Judeo- Christian God is seen as the sole source of human creation) (Niu & Sternberg, 2007).

There are two different types of creativity: Historic and personal (Boden, 2004, as cited in Medin, Ross, & Markman, 2005). Historic creativity is the first proposal of a given solution to a difficult problem, much like Newton's description of the solar system as a central force system. Personal creativity is the generation of a novel idea for an individual, like an idea for an invention or even a new way to study for an exam.

Freud was the first psychologist to study creativity. He used a psychodynamic approach and claimed that creativity was spawned from the desire for fame, fortune and love that was before tied up in frustration and emotional tension. Later on, Freud took back this statement.

The first model of creativity was published in //Art of Thought// by Graham Wallas (pictured left). He proposed that creative insight could be explained by a process of 5 stages: preparation, incubation, intimation, illumination, and verification (Medin, Ross, & Markman, 2005). Many publications afterward have used the model, but as a four stage process that lists illumination as a substage.

Important work was done in the field of psychology by J.P. Guilford. Guildford made the distinction between convergent and divergent production. He stated that convergent production is looking for a single solution to a problem while divergent production sought a creative generation of multiple solutions to a problem (Guilford, 1959, as cited in Medin, Ross, & Markman, 2005). In psychological literature, divergent production is sometimes substituted for creativity.

Finke et al. propsed the "geneplore" model in 1992. The model states that creativity takes place in two phases: a generation phase and an exploratory phase. In the generation phase, the individual constructs mental representation called preinventive structures. the exploratory phase is where creative ideas are created from the structures in the generation phase.